Operation Northwoods was a 1962 proposal by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that included plans for bombings, hijackings, and sinking refugee boats — all to be blamed on Cuba. President Kennedy rejected the proposal. Declassified in 1997.
“The Joint Chiefs have proposed staging terrorist attacks against American citizens and military targets to create justification for war with Cuba.”
From “crazy” to confirmed
The Claim Is Made
This is the moment they called it crazy.
In 1962, America's top military commanders presented President John F. Kennedy with a proposal that reads like a declassified thriller: orchestrate false flag attacks on American citizens and blame Cuba to justify an invasion. The proposal was called Operation Northwoods, and it outlined plans for bombings, hijackings, and the sinking of refugee boats—all to be blamed on Fidel Castro's regime.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officers in the U.S. military, formally submitted this proposal during the height of Cold War tensions. They weren't suggesting hypothetical scenarios. The memorandum included specific methods: they could bomb American cities, conduct a false flag attack on a U.S. Navy vessel, or even hijack commercial aircraft. The goal was straightforward: create an incident that would outrage the American public and provide political cover for military action against Cuba.
For decades, anyone suggesting the U.S. government had considered such tactics faced dismissal as a conspiracy theorist. The official response, when the topic surfaced, was simple denial. The military and government insisted that such proposals had never seriously been considered at the highest levels. Public skepticism about military motives was treated as paranoia rather than healthy scruticism.
Then declassification changed everything. In 1997, the Defense Department released the Operation Northwoods memorandum through official channels. The document was authentic and bore the signatures of high-ranking military officials. The Archive, a nonprofit research institute, obtained and preserved the papers, making them available for public scrutiny. Suddenly, what had been dismissed as conspiracy theory became documented history.
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Confirmed: They Were Right
The truth comes out. Officially documented.
Confirmed: They Were Right
The truth comes out. Officially documented.
The evidence is unambiguous. The declassified memorandum doesn't suggest the idea came from rogue officers—it was a formal proposal submitted through proper military channels. It included detailed operational plans and cost estimates. President Kennedy's rejection of the proposal revealed something equally important: that the civilian leadership of the country recognized the proposal's fundamental illegitimacy and stopped it.
This matters because it exposes a critical gap between official narratives and institutional reality. For three decades, the military and government denied or downplayed the very existence of such thinking. During those same decades, whenever citizens questioned whether the government might manipulate events to justify military action, they were dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Operation Northwoods proved that skepticism wasn't paranoia—it was warranted.
The declassification also raises an uncomfortable question about institutional restraint. Operation Northwoods succeeded in remaining secret not because it failed as an idea, but because Kennedy rejected it. What this tells us is that the existence of checks on power—in this case, a president willing to say no—matters enormously. Without Kennedy's refusal, false flag attacks on Americans could have been executed with the full authority of the U.S. military.
Today, as military and political leaders justify actions using intelligence assessments and threat assessments, Operation Northwoods serves as a historical reminder. It shows that even the most unethical proposals can reach the highest levels of government, and that public skepticism about official justifications for military action isn't paranoia—it's civic vigilance.
Unlikely leak
Only 13.3% chance this would come out. It did.
Conspirators
~1,000Large op
Secret kept
35.7 years
Time to 95% exposure
500+ years
